The Start-Up Mortality List (SMoL) has been designed to be in line with the International Classification of Diseases version 10 (ICD-10), and informs setting public health priorities and tracking progress towards national and international targets and goals such as the post-2015 health and development agenda. This list is designed to be a first step towards standardized reporting of causes of death. Countries lacking the capacities to code to ICD-10 3- or 4-digits should use the SMoL.

A global meeting on civil registration and vital statistics (CRVS) took place in Addis Ababa from 28-29 April 2014, co-hosted by the UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), the World Health Organization (WHO), the World Bank Group, and sponsored by the Government of Canada Department for Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development (DFATD).

The purpose of the meeting was to discuss investment and acceleration of CRVS strengthening, building on the current regional and global momentum (see Agenda, Annex I). More specifically, the meeting’s objectives were to:

A global meeting on civil registration and vital statistics (CRVS) took place in Addis Ababa from 28-29 April 2014, co-hosted by the UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), the World Health Organization (WHO), the World Bank Group, and sponsored by the Government of Canada Department for Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development (DFATD).

A global meeting on civil registration and vital statistics (CRVS) took place in Addis Ababa from 28-29 April 2014, co-hosted by the UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), the World Health Organization (WHO), the World Bank Group, and sponsored by the Government of Canada Department for Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development (DFATD).

The purpose of the meeting was to discuss investment and acceleration of CRVS strengthening, building on the current regional and global momentum (see Agenda, Annex I). More specifically, the meeting’s objectives were to:

A global meeting on civil registration and vital statistics (CRVS) took place in Addis Ababa from 28-29 April 2014, co-hosted by the UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), the World Health Organization (WHO), the World Bank Group, and sponsored by the Government of Canada Department for Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development (DFATD).

The purpose of the meeting was to discuss investment and acceleration of CRVS strengthening, building on the current regional and global momentum (see Agenda, Annex I). More specifically, the meeting’s objectives were to:

WHO, in collaboration with Canada, UNICEF, USAID and the World Bank, organized a technical meeting in Geneva from 17 to 18 December 2013 to share experiences and explore the potential of health sector innovation for strengthening CRVS systems. This paper describes key areas in which health innovations can contribute to CRVS systems strengthening and lays out good practices against which health sector activities should be assessed.

The workshop gathered African experts in mortality statistics collections together to collaborate on new technical guidance to be provided to countries for designing better mortality statistics systems; and to develop a pool of available experts to deploy to countries to support technical improvement and results in mortality data collections, especially for death registration, hospital deaths and integrating systems for community deaths.

The workshop aimed to guide countries in developing a sustainable nation-wide strategy to implement ICD for causes of death. By the end of the workshop each country should have a sound strategy with set goals and timelines given their resources. Their strategy may also include using verbal autopsy as an approach to obtain causes of death in deaths occurring outside of health-facilities. This will include:

This document has been developed through a consultative process involving country representatives from the health, civil registration and statistics sectors, technical experts, researchers, and representatives of agencies, donors and development partners. As part of this process, a technical meeting,  Improving Mortality Statistics as part of Strengthening Civil Registration and Vital Statistics Systems, World Health Organization, Technical Meeting, was convened by WHO from 4 to 5 November 2014 in Geneva, Switzerland.